The present invention is generally related to lift-type car parks.
Known lift-type car parks have a lifting platform and a plurality of parking places for motor vehicles disposed over and next to one another in a vertical and horizontal storage arrangement.
Such a lift-type car park is shown for example in West German Auslegeschrift No. 11 30 994 and West German Patentschrift No. 17 09 343. In these lift-type car parks, the vehicles are moved from the lift to the parking place (and vice versa) with the aid of a shunting car which is equipped with lateral drive rollers enabling one wheel of the vehicle to be grasped from outside so that the vehicle can be moved horizontally, rolling on its own wheels. In addition to the shunting car, the parking place on ground level which serves as an entrance or an exit is provided with a revolving belt or chain, that may be moved in either direction. The revolving belt or chain, in the area of the "tow-path" will pick up the rear wheel of a motor vehicle to be parked which is standing on the belt or chain. The belt or chain carries two drive rollers or support elements that may be raised or lowered in any desired order to bear against the rear wheel.
Such conveying systems are relatively costly and have to be disposed so that they can be lowered in the parking places which also serve as the entrance or exit to the car park so as not to interfere with the normal ingress or egress to the area.
Furthermore, special driving systems are necessary, which should be electrically coupled to the entire system and need to be electronically controlled. Since these transporting systems must operate in areas which are accessible by the vehicle's occupants, they either need to be made safe or must be operated only when the occupants of a vehicle have vacated the vehicle and the area of the parking place. For safety purposes, the vehicle's occupants should only have access to the parking place when the transporting device has completed its delivery of the vehicle and is in its static or retracted position.
These requirements not only make the entire installation more expensive than would otherwise be the case but also slows down parking and collection operations. The time delay in the parking and collection operation alone makes itself very apparent, in a particularly disadvantageous fashion, at hours of peak usage.